im gonna set my self on fire tonight whats the safest way and i mean my whole body not my legs or anything
I do believe this is a very personal issue between your mother, your friend, and yourself. I suggest an open discussion about the ethics of fire alarm pulling, so that in the future this kind of situation will not be repeated.
Look on the back of the detector, there are 2 types of smoke detectors. The detectors that say ION Detection method on the back have a radioactive americium 241 source for the ion flow that only lasts about 10 years until the detector needs to be replaced, so look at the manufacturers date stamp to see how old they are. The Soviets used to actually use a plutonium isotope in some of their ion smoke detectors that will last up to 25-30 years. Being that plutonium is deadly if ingested internally, one can understand why they discontinued this style of ion smoke detector. They can still be found in many buildings all over Pripyat (Chernobyl) abandoned in place and never recycled for personal safety. The newer style photoelectric smoke detectors use an infrared beam and IR receiver eye in the smoke detector chamber, this photo IR style can be blown out with caned or compressed air to get the dust out of the detection chamber.
